2 Days in Nanjing- 4/1/23 - 4/3/23

Day 2-Nanjing City Wall -4/2/23

Nanjing is one of the few cities in China to have a surviving ancient wall. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, this masterpiece of Chinese architecture was built by the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Taking 21 years to finish, the Emperor ordered 20 states in 5 provinces to make bricks for the wall. Each brick weighed about 22 pounds and were inscribed with the names of officials who were responsible for its quality. About 350 million bricks were used to build the wall.

Today, numerous gates serve as impressive check points at different parts of the wall.

This is the Taicheng wall which is the western section of the Nanjing City Wall bordering the scenic Xuanwu Lake. If you climb to the top of the Tiacheng Wall, besides the Lake you can see Jiming Temple, Jiuhuashan Hill, Zhongshan Hill, Jiefang Gate, and other popular sites around Nanjing.

Entering the Main gate of the City wall.

Now we are inside the City wall.

Map showing the wall used to encircle the whole city.  In order to cope with the winding landscape, unlike most of the Chinese City Walls (e.g., Xi-an), the Nanjing City Wall was not designed in square shape.

Stairs leading to the upper portion of the City wall.

View of the city wall wrapping around the city.  With an outer wall more than 37 miles in length, it was among the longest city walls ever built.

We are now on the upper portion of the city wall.

With around 16 miles of the remaining wall, it is the longest existing masonry wall in China.

View of Xuanwu Lake from the upper portion of the wall.

From here the view of the lake and the city in the background is really beautiful.

Xuanwu Lake is a beautiful scenic spot

Funny looking boat on the lake.

View of Jiming Temple

Jiming temple is a renowned Buddhist temple in Nanjing.

Closer look at the temple.

View of the city.

1 million skilled and unskilled workers took over 20 years to complete the wall, laying hundreds of millions of bricks fused together with a highly effective mortar made from lime and glutinous rice. Parts of the wall are 69 feet high (almost five double-decker buses stacked on top of each other), and wide enough for two of those buses to pass each other on top of the battlements.

Bricks carved with Chinese characters inscribed with the names of officials who were responsible for the quality of the bricks.

A little museum inside the city wall.

NEXT... Presidential palace